


Feature Presentation

by katyhorrorpictureshow



Series: Feature Presentation [1]
Category: Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios
Genre: Dark, Gen, Halloween Horror Nights, Horror, Julian Browning, The Phantom of the Opera - Freeform, angsty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-30
Updated: 2015-10-30
Packaged: 2018-04-28 23:15:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5109119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katyhorrorpictureshow/pseuds/katyhorrorpictureshow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In 2009, a group of friends head to the Universal Palace Theater to hold a Halloween sèance. Little do they know that the spirit who protects the abandoned movie palace, an usher who suffered a tragic death, is still alive and ready to enact his vengeance upon those who break the rules...</p><p>AU from "Demons Among Us", currently undergoing retool as of 9/25/17.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Feature Presentation

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Halloween, everyone! Here's a short story I wrote, inspired by The Usher's kill scene from the Icons of HHN scarezone this year, as well as The Phantom of the Opera.

The old movie palace in the center of town stood alone and dilapidated, basking in her dusty, faded glory. She was a gem in an otherwise boring ghost town, a remnant of glitzy times past, when people went to see operas and classic movies dressed in their Sunday best. Any opulence or grandeur the Universal Palace Theater once held had entirely disappeared throughout the years, because she was not able to die in peace. Whenever people walked by the theater late at night, they swore a chill crept up behind them and followed them down the sidewalk, perhaps a precautionary wind to keep them away. Others could only gaze up at the theater with a transfixed gaze, wondering what it was like when the marquee lights weren’t broken and an usher inhabited the ticket booth. The Universal Palace sure was a looker, but the tragic stories of misbehaving patrons who were supposedly killed for their misdeeds and enraged the monsters ripped from the silver screen transformed her into an ugly, vengeful creature out for blood.

Or rather, the Phantom that protected the theater long after his death was an ugly, vengeful creature most people feared. The Spirit Seekers from Legendary Truth were the only people known to have actually seen the ghost of Julian Browning, a devoted usher who died after accidentally hanging from one of the old sandbag ropes behind the movie screen. My father, a now retired Spirit Seeker and zombie hunter, told his students and I stories of the ghosts he had seen. Although he had seen his fair share of the undead, The Phantom of the Universal Palace was considered one of the worst. Zombies, or Kerezans, as they’re classified, are some of the less powerful members of the undead hierarchy, along with the Cerebins and the Morphans. But when you’ve got a zombie that can still speak perfect English and can compose himself in a way that makes him seem more mortal than corpse, then there’s a problem that you can’t quite solve. And unfortunately, for a revenant that is only empowered by vengeance, that problem is inevitable.

So, in his best thoughts, my father sent two of his students, including me, out to the Universal Palace - on Halloween, fittingly enough. He wanted to see if the Palace was still worthy of her Level One conviction mark, a sentencing only given out to the most haunted of places. Lacey and Ryan didn’t seem so unnerved by the fact that the theater was a dangerous place both inside and out, the brave souls they were. Googling witness accounts of those who ventured into the theater and nearly lost their lives only excited them even more. Lacey even decided to take photos for her uncle’s Haunted Road Trip blog, to help him spruce up some interest. In a way, though, they weren’t going to take the mission seriously. They only wanted to fill their rebellious streaks and pump up their adrenaline rush.

As Ryan drove us in his blue 1997 Ford pickup truck, I perused through the notes I had taken about the theater in my notebook. Apparently, each of the deaths that occurred in the Palace’s prime matched to a film being shown roughly around the same time. For instance, there was an avid fan of the film _Dracula: Legacy in Blood_ that was to be married on the same night she attended a showing of the film, but she was found hypnotized and drained bloodless by the film's end, transformed into a Bride of Dracula, even as she wore her wedding dress intended for her beloved to see. An unfazed man was mauled to death by a mysterious beast not unlike _The Wolfman_ , while the bloodied prom suits of three teenage boys were found floating in the sewers below the theater after a showing of _The Spawning_. Of course, these accounts never specified who was behind these unusual deaths. Was it the Palace herself, being some kind of sentient building with a power to kill, or was it the Phantom who became the Palace's devoted guardian in death?

Even though the Phantom had become cold and relentless as his corpse further deteriorated, I did feel some sort of odd sympathy for him upon reading his obituary. He was fascinated with cinema and was somewhat of an expert, a mourner was cited as saying, especially on horror films - _The Phantom of the Opera_ starring Lon Chaney, Sr. being his favorite. He loved the magic that fiction brought, allowing him to escape to a world better than our own. The Universal Palace was both his friend and his lover, as she contained the love he always failed to find and the job that kept him alive.

In 1940, Julian was ushering over a screening of his precious film, quietly whispering the text displayed on the title cards to himself as they appeared. It was during the infamous scene when Christine Daaè was about to unmask the Phantom, foiled by her own curiosity, did a patron sitting in the back of the auditorium wouldn't shut up, complaining that the film took too long to reach the suspenseful parts. Julian charged up the aisle toward him, warning him that if he opened his mouth one more time, he would be banned from the Palace for life. Of course, since most took customer service for granted, the man became rowdy and belligerent, and took Julian's flashlight, chucking it in the direction of the newly renovated screen, ripping it right in the middle.

Instead of seeing the Phantom's gruesome, macabre face, all the patrons saw that night was a gaping hole where his face should've been, leaving Christine to react to the hole in the white canvas. As the patrons filed out of the auditorium, Julian went behind the screen to retrieve his flashlight, seething in anger and embarrassment. He believed the light that beamed from his mag light gave him power, a sense of authority that let him protect the theater, and without it, he was vulnerable.

In the midst of his search, Julian's neck got caught in one of the old sandbag ropes from the Palace's opera house days. The loop was small enough for his neck to get caught in, but not big enough for him to loosen himself free, as the rope was jammed in the Billy block sheave. It was the graveyard shift at the Universal Palace that night, literally in Julian's case, as he slowly suffocated to death, flailing and hanging helplessly just as Joseph Buquet did. And sadly, no one was surprised that Julian passed on in the most tragic of ways.

“Well, here it is.”

Ryan’s jerky stop brought me back to reality. He parked next to the curb, right next to the Universal Palace itself. Alone and sad she stood, just like always, but yet tempting the curious ones to step into her forgotten halls and awaken the Phantom. The ticket booth was empty, save for ticket rolls and boxes of popcorn sprawled over with dust. The red letter ‘P’ stood vacant on the marquee like a fresh blood stain, as if to announce the name of an upcoming film. The color scheme of the theater - a muted crimson and gray with the slightest hints of gold - was so washed out from age and rain that it served as an ominous remembrance of the Palace's dead glamour. Broken poster frames lined the walls, and the set of double doors were already creaking on their hinges, almost like the theater was beckoning us closer to tempt our fate, to see what lay behind the doors.

“We’ve got no time to waste, guys,” Lacey said, breaking the silence between the three of us. “Let’s go in before the storm starts up again.”

I climbed out of the truck and followed Ryan and Lacey, all while goosebumps prickled on my arms and my heart pounded loudly in my chest. My hair flew in the cool breeze surrounding me, not letting me go. That precautionary wind people mentioned in their stories had come to greet me, to welcome me to the Palace, and of course, I must remain at ease, no matter how terrified I was.

“You're being pretty quiet tonight, Katharine,” Ryan said in concern, raising a dark eyebrow. “Are you scared or something?"

“I'm not scared!” I protested. “I’m just skeptical. Abandoned places aren't all that safe, you know."

“Well, your dad did say that during one of his seminars. But come on! We’re just having some good old Halloween fun."

"Sometimes, it's fun to break the rules," Lacey said sweetly, placing her pink-manicured hand on my shoulder. "After all, you were the one most excited about coming here!"

Nodding, I followed behind them as we walked right by the ticket booth and through the double set of doors. We entered a hallway lined with broken poster frames not unlike the ones outside, the glass shattered and displaying faded posters for movies such as _The Thing_ and _My Bloody Valentine_ , classics from the eighties. After passing by a lectern where the usher would rip your ticket, we arrived in the lobby, a wide, open atrium with two staircases that led up to a balcony left over from the theater's opera house days. Old advertisements for Meetz Meats lay scattered around, urging patrons to buy their hot dogs and hamburgers rumored to be crafted from human flesh and meat. A lost-and-found center was even situated in one of the corners of the room, where a basket stood full of broken dolls and ripped-up teddy bears. Aside from those things, the lobby didn’t host much excitement; no ghosts of patrons past here. Like the rest of the theater, it was dull, devoid of any life. It was kept in a dirtied, disrespectful condition, fallen at the hands of vandals, and if he still even haunted the theater, Julian Browning would not appreciate the vandalism and untidiness one bit.

The storm outside was at its peak now, the thunder so powerful that it made the chandeliers above us shake. The chill had followed me inside, eerily enough, nipping at my heels and caressing my face like I was a stray lover. _Maybe it's Julian's presence,_ I thought, a harbinger of dread and devastation. Thankfully, the Phantom was nowhere to be found, and hopefully he stayed hidden.

"Hey, Katharine," Lacey whispered, slipping her white Flip camcorder in my hand. "Film me looking around the lobby. I want to send a clip to Uncle George later!"

I switched on the Flip and began to record Lacey, trying so hard not to roll my eyes. There was already a documentary about the Universal Palace, but it focused more on a renovation that never went through after the Spirit Seekers' intervention. So, did we really have to go all Blair Witch Project here?

"Hi, Uncle George!" Lacey crowed, flipping her platinum blonde locks as she smiled through glossy pink lips. "We're at the Universal Palace Theater, and man, is it creepy here!" She gestured for me to follow her over to the basket of abandoned toys. "Look at this." She grabbed a baby doll with a missing arm and a cracked blue eye out of the basket. Creepy dolls left over at the lost-and-found! Talk about disturbing." She dropped the doll to the floor, its head crashing against the tile with a light thud.

"And here we've got some old candy boxes," Ryan continued, picking up a dented, empty box of Butterfingers off the floor. "Were Butterfingers big in the eighties?"

"Does it look like I know?" Lacey quipped out of frame.

Ryan shook his head, his shaggy locks following suit. "Lacey isn't no candy aficionado, that's for sure. But wow, check out this place! We've got... uh..." He looked around, trying to find something else of interest, all while I followed him around with the Flip. "Some old chairs, a podium thing, a wall!"

"Because the walls here sure are cool," I added, turning over the Flip so the lens was aimed at me.

"Yeah, yeah," Ryan said quickly, gesturing for me to put the camera back on Lacey. Her back was to us as she wandered over to the concession stand, which mostly consisted of several broken shards of glass and old candy boxes. Ryan took the Butterfingers box in his hand and chucked it at the back of Lacey's head. 

"Hey!" Lacey let out a frightened squeak as she spun around, her blonde ponytail swaying behind her. "What was that for, asshole?" She furiously took one of the Meetz Meats advertisements off the ground, crumbled it into a ball, and threw it against Ryan's chest. "That's payback."

Ryan and Lacey continued their charades of throwing junk at each other as I put the Flip in my pocket and sat down on the second step of the staircase. I opened my notebook up and rolled up my sweater sleeves, looking around the lobby again. Well, this wasn't bad so far. If anything, the Palace was relatively harmless compared to the other places my father told me about, such as the manor where a family of cannibals celebrated among severed body parts and a warehouse where a lady in green strapped people to a spinning casino wheel.

Out of the corner of my eye, a bright beam of light flickered next to me. I whipped my head around and watched in fearful anticipation as the light grew in intensity behind a porthole window on one of the auditorium doors, coming closer and closer until it completely brightened up the window. I could've sworn I saw a face hidden among the bright light, his mismatched eyes eerily leering at me.

"Watch out!"

I jumped off the staircase and rushed to the concession stand, my notebook tumbling down the steps in the process. Lacey was inches away from the door, so I pushed her aside, not knowing that we were right by a podium where a marble bust sat. She screamed as her hip rammed right into the bust, causing it to fall on the floor and shatter into a dozen white pieces of plaster.

"Katharine!" Ryan shouted angrily, running over to us. He brought Lacey into his arms as she began hyperventilating, her chest heaving up and down. "What the fuck were you thinking?"

"I-I saw a light coming from behind the door!" I shouted, pointing at the porthole window. Ironically enough, the light had disappeared, so I didn't have any proof to back myself up. "I thought somebody caught us."

"Well, _I_ didn't see it!" Lacey hissed. "You didn't have to scare us like that, Katharine!"

I hung my head down. "I'm sorry. I was only trying to look out for you two."

"Oh, baby, no!" Lacey ignored my apology, instead glancing down at Ryan's injured leg. The pieces from the marble bust had scratched his leg, sending thin streams of blood trickling down to his ankle and seeping into his white sock. "You're hurt."

Shaking his head, Ryan outstretched his leg on the staircase banister and pried out a small shard of plaster, holding it up to his brown eyes. "At least it didn't cut me too deep," he remarked, flinging the shard to the floor. "I've got spring tryouts tomorrow and I don't want to risk not getting a spot on the football team."

"Oh, thank fuck," Lacey gasped in relief.

“So, uh, are we about ready to try and summon any ghosts?" I asked awkwardly.

"Oh, could you maybe Google some séance tactics for us, Kathy?" Lacey asked me, almost in a taunting manner. "It would really help us out."

I pulled out my phone and typed in a quick search, but the screen didn't load.

"There isn't much of a connection down here. Maybe we could try upstairs?"

Despite Lacey's audible annoyance, we trudged up one of the staircases and entered the upstairs auditorium through the balcony entryway. Passing through the red, velvet curtains leading to the seats was like stepping right into the 1920s, leaving the present behind us. The auditorium was as grand as the Paris Opera House, with golden, ornate columns that graced the sides of the red, damask patterned walls, and plush, velvet seats mostly preserved, although some had been ripped apart, stuffing seeping out of the cushions. How was it that a haunted place could be so beautiful, despite the ghostly horror stories of death and murder that lingered in her halls? An eerie state of solitude was only the beginning of the horrors that we would eventually discover, a warning before we went too far.

"Uncle George is gonna love this!" Lacey cheered, snatching the Flip camera out of my pocket. She snapped a picture, the flash skittering throughout the auditorium and disturbing the darkness. "I mean, really, look how cool this is! It's like eighty percent kept-up in here!"

"Then you might want to ignore the rat on your shoe, Lace," Ryan said cautiously, his eyes narrowing down and widening in disgust.

Lacey looked down and screeched at the gray furry creature resting on her blue Adidas sneaker. She flung the rat off her shoe and rushed into an aisle of seats, huddling onto one and resting her feet against the cushion. I put myself out of view and took a seat some rows behind them, leaning over the ledge to stare out into the auditorium. The curtains up on stage fluttered in the gentle, night breeze, but a suspicious inkling inside me believed that someone must've been up there, watching us silently as he planned our executions. My blood went cold, but as I tried to push away my doubts and focus more on the information my father needed, I couldn't stop thinking about the Phantom of the Universal Palace. He was here, I knew it. If we didn't want to die tonight, we have to leave now!

“Hey, Katharine!” Lacey craned her neck up toward the balcony. “Do you have anything new on those séance tactics yet?”

I quickly turned on my phone and typed in a random search. Nothing happened.

“Still nothing, Lacey. Sorry.”

"Great!" Lacey groaned and threw her arms down to her sides. “Well, this all went to shit, didn’t it? What do we have to do to summon some old, creepy ghost anyway, huh? Scream his name out loud three times like Beetlejuice?”

“Lacey, just don’t say anything yet," I suggested. "Maybe we’ll get a sign from one of the ghosts! That's what we need, right?"

"We're sick of waiting!" Ryan said in exasperation, crossing his arms. "We came here for a ghost, and we're not leaving until we see a ghost. So..." His wolf-whistle echoed for several seconds throughout the auditorium. "Hey, Phantom! Stop swinging from the rope and show your pathetic, undead ass to us!"

“Ryan, stop!" I cried. Hadn't they gotten the memo yet? "That’ll only make him angrier!”

“How do you know that? Is there something in your notes that mentions we’re going to get killed just by shouting his name?”

“Yes, actually!” I flipped to one of the pages in my notebook and shone my phone light on the notes I had written. “It says if you disrespect the theater in any way, Julian will show up and kill you!”

“Ooh, I’m so scared,” Lacey said tauntingly. “We didn’t even do anything!”

"Yeah, maybe except throwing candy boxes around like this is the dump or something!" I argued.

“Chillax, Katharine!” Ryan added. “Get the pole out of your ass and loosen up. He can’t hear us. He probably doesn't know I said those things!”

“Fine," I mumbled. "But if he shows up and you're the one getting cold feet, I’m not going to help you.”

Ryan and Lacey exchanged amused looks and burst into laughter. I rose to my feet and stormed down the aisle, entering what used to be the orchestra level of the theater. Trash lined the aisles, discarded popcorn buckets and candy boxes so old they were sprawled over with dust. I rubbed my hands against my knees before picking up a popcorn bucket and an empty, yellow box of Candy Fruits laying on the floor, to try and tidy the place up a bit. Maybe if the Phantom saw me cleaning the theater, he'd respect me more. After all, the lobby was in such disarray, now that the marble bust was broken and Ryan's muddy footsteps dirtied the floor. If I wanted to get out of the Universal Palace alive, I had to show some respect for her, the proud and dignified lady she was once considered to be.

My cheeks began to sting from the cold draft flowing into the auditorium. I stayed hidden among the seats as I looked back up at the balcony, watching as Ryan and Lacey passionately made out without a care in the world. I couldn't blame them, really. They were the cliched high school sweethearts that managed to stay together well into college, and they really did love each other. I only wondered why did people get off on having sex in places where serial killers lurked? Didn't they know that was the number one way to die in a horror movie? Not that it mattered in real life, of course, but it was safer to take precaution rather than risks.

"Christine..." A man, his voice creaky and decrepit, whispered directly in my ear. "Katharine..."

I froze in my spot on the steps, the hairs on the back of my neck standing up as the draft surrounded me, making me its prisoner. There was only one person that had the nerve to compare me to the ingenue soprano, someone who was familiar with the story of The Phantom of the Opera and who longed to find his own Christine.

"Who's there?" I called for the Phantom, looking all around, waiting for him to appear in one of the curtained door frames with his flashlight in hand. "Show yourself!"

Then, as if the Phantom had indeed heard my question, a bright light from high above flooded atop the remaining seats in front of me, spilling onto the stage and the white, mothball ridden canvas that remained of the screen. The gallows behind the screen formed tantalizing, horrifying shadows of the long dead rule-breakers of the theater's past, swinging on their nooses just as the Phantom did many years ago. One even seemed to sway in the cold chill, the body flailing and twitching as if still alive.

"OH GOD, NO!" The shrillest, piercing scream I've ever heard came from not Lacey's mouth, but my own, stinging my ears as it echoed all around me. My phone and notebook fell from my trembling hands as I turned quickly on my heel and ran back up to the balcony.

"Katharine, what's wrong?" Ryan asked, startled as he jumped off of Lacey's lips.

"He knows we're here!" I screamed, falling to my knees on the carpeted steps next to them. "The Phantom of the Universal Palace is here, watching us right now!"

"Yeah, sure, Katharine! He's only inside your mind!"

"Look at the screen, Ryan!"

As Ryan and Lacey turned their heads to the screen, the projector clicked on, its loud, whirring sound deafening the sound of my heartbeat. They never got to see the corpses on the gallows, as an old cartoon featuring dancing concessions like a box of popcorn and a hot dog now filled the screen. The picture crackled and sputtered, a sign of its age, and the sound was distorted, transforming the cartoons' cheery voices into that of demons sent straight from Hell.

_Let's all go to the lobby... let's all go to the lobby..._

"Come on, let's go!" Ryan gestured for me to follow him and Lacey out of the auditorium. "We're leaving right now!"

We bolted through the velvet curtains and out of the auditorium, running down the steps of the staircase that in this moment seemed to go on for forever. The exit doors in the lobby were just within our reach, but before our feet hit the last step of the staircase, a bright beam of light blocked our pathway. Lacey screamed and grabbed onto my collar, nearly knocking me down to my knees as the owner of the light approached, a tall, dark shadow wearing a circular hat on his head.

"Good evening... moviegoers." The man's dialect was similar to that of the old Hollywood celebrities, but the passage of time darkened his voice. "Welcome to the Universal Palace Theater. We haven't been showing any feature presentations here recently, so..." He brought the light closer to his face, revealing his gaunt cheeks and deeply sunken in eyes. "Why are you all here?"

"Nice makeup, dude," Ryan retorted. "I know tonight is Halloween, but you don't need to scare the shit out of us like that!"

"Record him," Lacey whispered, clinging onto Ryan's blue jersey sleeve. "My Flip's in my pocket!"

Ryan took the Flip and brought it in front of the Phantom's face to film him, but it was so dark that nothing would show up on video. Spindly fingers hiding in white gloves snatched the camcorder out of Ryan's hands and threw it behind his crimson, padded shoulder, landing to the floor with a loud crack.

"Ww-who are you?" Lacey asked, her voice breathy. "Please, don't hurt us!"

"I am The Usher of this theater," the Phantom replied slowly, ignoring Lacey's cries and instead taking a step toward her. "Since we've been... closed down, the Palace has needed her loyal guardian to protect her. And I am here to stay, even in death."

"Look, we're all innocent, okay dude?" Ryan stressed, shielding Lacey away from the Phantom. "We weren't here to do anything we weren't supposed to do. We only wanted to see if the myth about this place was real!"

"Myth?" The Usher rolled his head, revealing the rugged ligature mark that coiled around his neck where the noose had strangled him. "I am no myth, boy, and I am certainly no cautionary tale, either. I am the conduit for those who break the rules."

"Ryan, get him away from me!" Lacey shrieked with tears, hiding her face with her arm.

Nervously, to distract the Phantom from my terrified, crying friend, I took a step toward the Usher and forced myself to confront the ghost that had intrigued and frightened me. I had once seen an old photograph of him in his prime, back when he was alive and smiling and, in fact, quite handsome. I wasn't able to recognize the once youthful usher at all, as the undead curse had taken over him, even more so as the years of being a living corpse stiffened and deteriorated him.

"Uh... hi, Julian. That's your name, right? Julian Browning?"

The Phantom slowly turned his head to face me. I was looking Death right in the eyes - one milky and colorless, the other a dull shade of green. He didn't speak, but as our eyes met, his pale, blue lips curled up in a smirk. He was pleased to see that someone still remembered him after all the years of being known as nothing but the Phantom.

"I... I know how you died. I know all about this place and about all the deaths that happened here. And to be honest with you, I felt sort of bad when I found out who you were in the past. All you wanted was to be respected for your passion, wasn't it? But everyone shunned you for that. They didn't understand how much you loved this place. But I understand. My friends and I made some mistakes, but we didn't mean to make you angry. We're sorry for disturbing the Palace. We didn't mean to hurt her."

The Usher's smirk grew wider as he approached me further, standing so that he took up every inch of my space. He was much taller than me - easily a foot - so I craned my head up to look in his eyes, to show that I was not afraid of him.

"Finally... a trespasser who has some... common sense. Tell me, my dear, why exactly did you and your friends come here?"

"We... I..." I took a gulp. "I was interested in learning about the theater's history. My father sent Ryan and Lacey here to find out if any ghosts were active, and I tagged along with them. We were only curious!"

"Yy-yeah," Lacey sobbed, "we're only here to do research!"

The Phantom was not one to listen to cries for mercy. In a maddened rage, he charged toward Ryan and grabbed him by the collar, pushing Lacey off his shoulder. Lacey tumbled down the remaining step of the staircase and crawled on the floor, burying her face into the brass handlebar as she heaved out heavy sobs. Horrified, I remained frozen in the middle of the conflict, needing to both console Lacey and defend Ryan, all while Julian gazed at me with an increasing, sickening interest in his eyes.

"Let him go!" I shouted, grabbing onto Ryan's arm. "He doesn't deserve this. I do!"

"For your information, I execute... trespassers," Julian concurred, tugging on Ryan's other arm so aggressively that I swore I could've heard a bone pop, "especially those who do not take into account the ghosts simply trying to rest in peace. I speak on the behalf of all of them when I say that in my theater, rude behavior will not be tolerated... ever."

“Bb-but what about me?" Tears streamed down my face. "I deserve this more than they do. I—"

Julian shook his head. "Your friends have come here just to exploit yet another ghost who resides in Carey, if what you say is correct. On the other hand, my dear... _you_ seem to be rather... interested in my theater. I've always had a fondness for the... naturally curious ones who come here."

“She's right!” Lacey lifted her head up from the stair, revealing the watery streams of mascara running down her face. “Don't hurt us, please!"

“ _Hush._ " Julian shone the flashlight directly in Lacey's eyes. "If you or your companions utter another sound, I will rip your tongues out. The breaking of the golden rule happened to be the reason behind my death" - he says this as he runs his finger along the ligature marks - "and I will ensure it never happens again. Now follow me, please."

"I'll help you, Lacey." I went downstairs and gently grabbed her by the wrist. "I'll try getting us out of this."

"He... he's going to kill Ryan, Katharine," Lacey sobbed, streams of tears and snot running down her face. "I'm... I'm really scared. We have to do something!"

"What about your phone?" I whispered, watching as Julian passed through the curtains to the balcony with Ryan in tow. "Do you have a connection?"

Lacey quickly grabbed her phone out of her pocket. In our situation, a dead battery was way worse than a poor connection signal, and ironically enough, the screen displayed an empty battery.

"What's taking so long, ladies?" Julian emerged from the curtains and illuminated our pathway to Hell with his flashlight. "I do not like to be kept waiting."

Lacey and I had no choice but to walk back up the stairs and follow Julian into the auditorium. I gave Lacey a sympathetic look as she bit deeply into her bottom lip, drawing a thin line of blood that stained through the pink lipstick she wore. She nodded slowly, accepting my apology. Even though I had told the Phantom the truth, I didn't know our consequences would be that dire, all for horsing around the lobby and exploring. Now, I had no idea what would happen to us.

Julian ushered us to the front row of seats in the orchestral level, where I had stood earlier. Two Kerezans dressed in the Universal Palace's usher uniforms were in the process of tying Ryan down in one of the seats. Another usher held a string of sturdy rope in his gloved hands, binding Ryan's wrists, while his female companion shoved a white handkerchief in his mouth. Julian watched his assistants work in satisfaction, tapping their noses with his finger when they were done, like a devoted father with his children. I had to suppress a gag in my throat.

"What do you want us to do with these two, boss?" the usher asked, sauntering toward Lacey and I with a morbid grin on his face. He took Lacey's ponytail in his hand and sniffed her hair, much to her horror. "Are we gonna hang them like the others?"

Julian whispered something in reply in the usher's ear, all while his milky eye seemed to glare at me specifically. Ryan's pleas were muffled as he looked at Lacey and I, and he banged his fists against the armrests of the seats. The assistants quietly laughed under their breaths as Lacey sucked on her bloody lip, forcing back her tears.

“Gather around,” Julian said, eyeing me and Lacey, “for my next feature presentation.” He glanced over at Ryan and gave him a depraved smile. “You’re in the spotlight, and for all the wrong reasons.”

The assistants chortled at Ryan's suffering; they've seen this plenty of times before. More tears streamed down Lacey's cheeks, while I hung my head down, my eyes puffy. Hunters weren't naive, nor did they allow for their friends to enter the line of danger without being there themselves. But I was only nineteen, still prone to making stupid decisions so quickly. I didn't necessarily aspire to be like my father's students parading through the streets of Carey, shooting a bullet through a zombie's head and letting them rot to their eternal death. What I did would surely be wrong not just in my father's eyes, but in the eyes of everyone else considered to be an ally of the Zombie Awareness Program. I should've never tried to defend this monster, this... being and the threat he created. There was no way I could try to save Ryan and Lacey now, not even if I tried.

"I suppose I shall give you a proper introduction to my theater, while you all are still alive," Julian continued. "Since her grand opening in October 1922, all of Hollywood's greatest movies have graced her screens. She is a proud and dignified lady... one that demands the proper respect and dignity. She will not be insulted, and rude behavior will not be tolerated... ever."

"Please..." Lacey's voice was shaky, hoarse from all the sobs restrained in her throat. "Please, mister usher sir, we'll leave and never come back. This was all a misunderstanding and we're sorry!"

"Snap her neck," Julian told the male assistant with a cold chuckle in his voice. "I can't stand her cries for mercy for much longer."

The usher snuck up behind Lacey and slid his arm underneath her jaw, squeezing it against her throat as he began to choke her. Lacey croaked and gasped for air like a fish out of its fishbowl, flailing in the usher's grasp as she tried to kick him away. The usher then grabbed onto her ponytail and jerked her neck upward, the crunching sound loud enough for everyone in the room to hear. Lacey twitched and stirred before crumbling to the floor in a near lifeless heap, her blue eyes wide and gazing up at the ceiling for one last look of the world.

"NO!" I bent down to Lacey's level, my tears soaking her lifeless face. I held her limp wrist in my hand, cringing as her pulse slowed until it faded away, completely gone.

Ryan screamed through his gag and pounded his fists on the seat's armrests, clenching his eyes tightly shut to not look at Lacey's corpse. If anything, he could've used his outstanding strength to break through the ropes and run like hell out of the auditorium, but Julian had tied his bounds so tightly he couldn't even budge, even as he outstretched his arms and pulled on the rope. 

"Why?" I dared myself to look up at Julian. "Why did you have to do this?"

"Broken rules? Broken necks," Julian simply replied, cotton grazing my lips as he brought a finger to them. "Now... _shh_..."

The female usher approached my side, smiling at me through pale lips as she crossed my arms behind my back so I had no choice but to watch the gruesome act that was about to unfold.

"You won't want to miss this, girl," she whispered tauntingly. "Julian says this is going to be his best one yet."

Julian smacked the side of Ryan's head with his flashlight, sending a spray of blood flying out of his mouth. Ryan's head went limp and slammed against the armrest, and as he fell to the floor, Julian went absolutely crazy in beating his head to a bloody pulp, grunting as he grabbed him by the neck and jammed the blunt end of his flashlight into Ryan's mouth and right through his throat..

I couldn't even recognize my friend so bloodied and brutally mangled. The usher covered my mouth with his hand so my screams wouldn't echo and startle Julian from his work, while the usherette kept my arms behind my back, slapping my shoulder every time I squirmed at the sound of flashlight against bone.

"You're still breathing?" There was no surprise in Julian's voice, no emotion to speak of except for dismay. He smashed his foot right through Ryan's skull, staining the floors with an overwhelming amount of blood and chunks of gore. "You made a mess."

"Please..." I sobbed, my body shaking. "Please, just let me go!"

Julian turned to me, almost as if he forgot I was still alive. He slowly walked over to me and remained completely still as he ran his cold fingers down my face, staining my cheeks with Ryan's blood.

"Didn't I say that rude behavior will _not_ be tolerated? I hope you enjoyed our feature presentation."

"No..." My voice was too hoarse for me to cry anymore. 

The usherette shook her head and clicked her tongue in dismay. “So, boss, what are we going to do with this one? We aren’t going to kill her, are we?”

“No,” Julian replied. “I have something else in store for her, if you know what I mean.” His dark chuckle immediately brought me to the thought that he meant something so despicable and violating that I’d probably pass over dead when he was done. "Bring her down to the lobby, Roxanne. I will be there momentarily."

"Sure thing, boss!" Roxanne replied all too cheerily. She tugged on my arm tightly and escorted me out of the auditorium. I turned my head and forced myself to watch as Julian's fellow usher picked up Lacey's corpse and brought her behind the screen, approaching the lynched victims hanging from the rafters. She and Ryan would join them, to serve as harbingers to those who continued to come to the theater looking for fun. I couldn't even bring myself to cry or push myself away from the usherette. Look what they had done to me, these cruel ushers with a passion for authority. I was too numb to even do anything at all.

"So, girl, you didn't answer his question," Roxanne quipped. "Did you enjoy tonight's feature presentation?"

I hid my face with my arm, refusing to answer.

"Aww, cheer up! The boss had a heart and decided to spare you... for now, at least! What's your name?"

"Kk-Katharine..." I brought myself to say.

“Huh! How ironic. Kind of sounds close to Christine, eh? That’s exactly how the boss sees you, you know. You’re his little Christine Daaè now!”

I remembered how Christine’s story played out in _The Phantom of the Opera_ , especially the Lon Chaney film. The Phantom was captivated by Christine's beautiful singing voice, and brought her to his underground lair with the intent to marry her. But it was when she took off the mask and revealed his true face did his vengeance fully ignite, his wrath causing the Paris Opera House to go to flames. But in the end, Christine was reunited with her lover, Raoul, and fled the Phantom unscathed. He later died after being trampled by carriages and thrown into the Seine River, drowning to his doom. But I had heard about the alternate ending that was shot but never shown to the public, in which Christine left the Phantom behind in his lair, leaving him to die of a broken heart. He became nothing more than a ghost haunting the abandoned catacombs, protecting the Paris Opera House as he had done before.

Ghosts didn't pass on so easily, if at all. They hovered over you and loomed in their haunting places forever, watching as time passed on and society adapted to new changes. They couldn't just go out and live through the changes themselves, stuck in the past. Julian, Roxanne, and the male usher didn't even look like ghosts, transparent and hazy. They were more like corporeal Kerezans, zombies with intellect and physical strength. One could question how they managed to drive away the fortunate and murder the curious throughout the years without getting sick of their jobs.

"Please, just let me go home..." I sobbed, using one of the sofa cushions to hide my face. "I won't tell anybody about this. I swear on my life!"

"Sorry, _Katharine_ , but you're stuck with us revenants now!" Roxanne chided. “Undead beings brought back from the dead for vengeance alone. Me and Peter were just bonus prizes for Julian, but our sworn duty is to protect this theater for as long as it may stand, and punish anyone who dares to enter the theater as she sleeps! If you don’t happen to die, you’ll leave the Universal Palace… well… changed into a much better person, mark my words. But you're not leaving just yet, Katharine! In fact, I don't think you'll be leaving at all."

My skin paled at the thought.

“To be honest, I think the boss has a little crush on you. I'm a bit jealous!” Roxanne cackled. “He isn't planning to bludgeon you like your little friends back in the auditorium. He's letting you live! For now, at least. Surely our boss may be an evil, bad man, but even he’s got his limits. He would never hurt a woman he fancies, the courteous gentleman he usually is!”

Julian and the other usher - Peter, as Roxanne mentioned - filed out of the auditorium, their gloves completely stained with blood. I stifled a whimper and hid behind Roxanne as the ushers descended from the staircase, but it was of no use. As soon as Julian's foot hit the floor, he grabbed me by the wrist and marched me over to a side door near the staircase. He pushed the door open and took a golden key from the pocket of his dark gray trousers to unlock a black gate in front of us.

"Where are you taking me?" I sniffled.

"To my home," Julian replied, glancing at me from the side of his good eye, "and yours as well."

"Why did you let me live?" I heaved out for air, my throat dry. "Please… please let me go! I’ll never come back here ever again! I want to go home to my family and tell them—“

"I'm afraid you can't. You're already dead in their eyes, so there's no use for you to return to the... mortals out there."

“Dead in their eyes?” I couldn’t see a thing, so I had to hold onto Julian’s hand as he ushered me into the unknown. “You know, I might look weak, but I know a little bit about zombie hunting and I can certainly beat your ass into a bloody pulp if I have to!"

“I suggest you don’t try to threaten me, girl, unless you’d like to join your companions and their state of being at the moment.”

“My name isn't 'girl'. It’s Katharine. Katharine Romero, daughter of Tom Romero, founder of the Zombie Awareness Program."

Julian ushered me through what was supposedly the labyrinth below the theater. There wasn't time for me to make guesses as to how Julian managed to build an entire replica of the Phantom's lair from Chaney's film in the sewers, or how he dragged in a pipe organ in the center of what could be called the parlor. We passed through a dark red curtain and entered a bedroom stocked with a bunch of dresses, shoes, and a bed that oddly looked like an Italian gondola. My skin began to crawl. It looks like Julian had planned for my arrival, for reasons I didn't want to know _at all_. Perhaps he watched me through the dirtied, dusty ticket booth window, disgustingly enamored by the way I fought against the undead along with my fellow fighters. He knew eventually that the living dead would rise to power, and he'd have me for himself. Looks like he got his wish.

“Why did you bring me here?” I asked bracingly, looking around the room with the utmost suspicion that something dreadful was probably going to happen.

Julian gave a feral grin, bearing his rotten, yellowed teeth. “Why, we’re going to get the theater back into business, my dear. Certainly we cannot be out of business for... too long.” I inched toward the bed as Julian came closer, invading all of my personal space. “First, I’m going to ask you some… imperative questions. Do you happen to like horror films, Katharine?”

“Uh… yeah, yes I do." I feigned an answer. "I like _Halloween_. The original one, not the remake.”

“Oh, so you prefer the slashers, then?" Julian seemed rather excited by my response, like he was getting to know a friend. "I happened to have met Mr. Myers some years ago. Also, you have a disdain for remakes… very impressive. Perhaps we have some similarities in our interests. Now, the second question… do you believe in ghosts?”

“If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to see you right now."

“And now, for the final question… are you willing to dedicate the rest of your life to my theater?”

My mind instantly drew a blank. “Ww-what?"

“ _I said_ are you willing to dedicate the rest of your life to my theater?”

“I… uh…”

Julian silenced me with a wave of his hand. “I’m sorry, my dear, but I’m afraid you don’t have much of a choice. If you’re so inclined to learn about my theater and the history behind it, you’ll have to become one of us to truly understand what it’s like to be among the dead.”

My breath got stuck in my throat. “No, please… no!“

Julian latched onto my arm and bit right into the delicate flesh, his teeth hitting one of my veins. Excruciating pain shot through my body as my arm twitched in spastic movements, adapting to the change ever so quickly. Purple veins shot up my arm and became etched into my skin, while my breath became stuck in my throat, being pushed away. It felt like I was being possessed, like a stronger, undead force pushed through my body and changed me to their personal liking. Maybe it was the fear demon Adaru hard at work, ensuring that I was perfect for one of his most trusted followers.

The last thing I could remember before entering the threshold of death was fainting, my head falling limp as the last traces of mortal life escaped from my grasp. Julian took me in his arms, bridal style, and as he brushed away my hair, he disturbingly buried a kiss into the crook of my neck with his cold, clammy lips, whispering my death sentence in my ear.

"You're mine to cherish now, Katharine."

* * *

I awoke some hours later. Flickering candlelight from candelabras on the walls illuminated the room, bathing the dresses and shoes around me in an eerie, glowing light. A mirror with a golden frame sat a few feet away from my bed, and desperate to catch a glimpse of my new horrendous, undead state, I rose from the bed to wander over to the looking glass. However, as to be expected from a Kerezan, pain shot through my body as soon as I landed on my feet. A strain shot through my back, while my joints popped with a sickly, cracking sound. My neck was slightly tilted to one side, and no matter how hard I tried to get it back upright, it seemed to stay stuck in that spot.

"You might not want to look."

I turned my head. Julian stood before me, awkwardly playing with his flashlight by spinning it around like a baton. I couldn't keep my eyes away from the laceration around his neck. How tragic it must've been hanging on the rope, suffocating slowly to death as no one came to your aid. It was better to die surrounded by people who cared you instead of dying alone. Unfortunately, in Julian's case, he died without an emotion that kept most alive - love.

“So, the stories were true,” I said in a voice just above a whisper. "You're really the Palace's Phantom."

“If I am the Phantom, it is because man’s hatred has made me so,” Julian said, directly quoting _The Phantom of the Opera_. “All of these years of being shut in the theater, wallowing in the misery of the past, hoping that someone would just simply understand the curse we all are under. And then, you arrived. You understood.”

“Wh-what do you mean?”

“You understood my story, Katharine. You were the only one to feel sympathy for me in the years I’ve lived, both dead and alive. I had always failed at finding the one who would be my own Christine. But now, I believe I have.”

I lowered my head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Julian took my chin in his hand and lifted my head up. “You know, a good man once said that most people are so ungrateful to be alive. But not you. Not anymore. From the moment you walked into my theater, I sensed potential in you, Katharine. You weren’t just another person wanting to exploit the theater for her… somewhat murderous tendencies, but rather, you were interested in what we had to offer, both past and present.”

Tears filled my eyes. “That doesn’t mean anything—“

“Hush.” Julian covered my mouth, stroking my lips. “You offered yourself to the Palace in search of the dark secrets we possess. And naturally, I shall give them _all_ to you. Haven’t you ever felt tormented just once in your life, Katharine? Didn’t you feel as if vengeance took over your soul? I've seen you kill the Kerezans in front of my theater, you know. Your killing streak is simply... divine. Together, we will show the rule breakers and trespassers what it truly means to enact cold-hearted revenge. All I ask of you is to… join me.”

“But my friends are dead because of you!” I sobbed. “They were innocent! I just wanted them to stop mistreating the theater!”

“Curiosity is a dangerous thing. It drives people stark-raving mad to the point where they give in to their temptation.”

“That’s not what you said earlier!" I pushed the usher away from me, taking a handful of his jacket in my hand. "Just let me go!” 

“You can’t anymore." Julian pushed me down on the bed, pinning my wrists against the mattress so I couldn't move. "You’re dead, they’ll never accept you. Your only salvation now is with me.”

“Get off of me! I’d rather be placed in a trap from _Saw_  than be with you!”

“But you’ve proven your worth to me, Katharine.” Julian let go of one wrist to stroke my chin. “Why would you want to fight for your life when I already know of your capabilities to restore my theater back to her prime?”

Regaining purchase in my legs, I wriggled out of Julian's grasp and fled out of the bedroom, rushing through the hallways of the lair and into the murky waters surrounding them. In panic, I quickly scanned the room, searching for the pathway back to the above ground. Julian was steadily approaching me, the beam of light from his flashlight flooding the darkened room and casting shadows. Without much of a choice than to wander around and pray for a sign, I waded in the murky waters, accidentally jamming my foot into the wall. Despite my pain, I climbed over the ledge separating the lair from the path, but not before something grabbed onto my ankle and dragged me back into the waters below.

A small, serpentine creature gazed into my eyes, its tiny talons digging into the flesh of my ankle. It was a Sculder, a rare species of Cerebin known for dwelling in the underground. I bit down on my lip and stifled a cry, but then I recalled the story of _The Spawning_ screening, where three teenage boys attempted to fight off the Sculders with nothing but their fists and a wrench. Seeing as I had nothing on me, I grabbed the Sculder and clenched my hand around its neck, prying it off of my ankle. It squeaked and hissed as it gasped for air, but as I made my grip firmer, its neck broke and its eyes bulged out of their sockets. I let the carcass drown down to the murky depths, never to attack again.

I climbed back up the ledge and won back my footing, despite my ankle. The light from Julian's flashlight only intensified with each step I took, and if I didn't reach the gate in time, I'd be captured and forced to live out my sentence as the Usher's prisoner. I continued my way down the darkened corridor, trying to navigate my way through the darkness. A serene burst of singing then surrounded me, lulling me into a false calm that I immediately knew was a trap.

"Dracula's brides," I recalled, the scene from _Dracula: Legacy in Blood_ coming to mind. Lo and behold, three vampire women wearing white wedding dresses and voluminous veils strolled into my path, their bloodied fangs bared. I had nothing to expel the vampires away from me. No cross, no sunlight, no strand of garlic. I had only my hands and my wit to stop me.

“Shit, what did Van Helsing say?” I played the scene of Lucy Westenra’s decapitation in my head, but his dialogue didn’t come to me at all.

One of the brides’ eyes lowered to my chest and became fixated on a silver chain I wore around my neck, a gift from my mother before she divorced from my father. Despite the fact that vampires were adverse to silver, the bride sauntered toward me, but as the amount of light emanating from the lobby briefly caught on my chain, she shrieked and jolted back, falling to her knees. Her fellow brides rushed toward her to help her back to her feet, but when they noticed my chain, they were quick to grab their sister by her arms and take her back into the darkness, their part of the game done.

“Good thing I still had this around,” I said to myself, running my finger along the chain.

Checking both sides of me to ensure the coast was clear, the game became afoot once more in my quest to reach the lobby and ultimately, my freedom from the Universal Palace Theater’s curse. Once I returned back home, I’d avenge Ryan and Lacey's deaths and become an avid activist for the threat the undead created in Carey. I always saw my father’s business as unrealistic, thinking he was only trying to bank on the occasional supernatural sightings that occurred right around Halloween. Now I knew he definitely wasn’t lying. Now I knew I should’ve listened to his advice. Sneaking into abandoned places only got you into trouble!

The gate was inches away from me now. My legs ached and throbbed from the Sculder's bite and my overall exhaustion, but determination raced through me. I was one step closer to my freedom, one step closer to returning home and continuing my life as if I hadn't been nearly raped and turned into one of the undead. The gate's door was in my hand and the sunlight creeping out of the lobby's windows temporally blinded me. The rays of light burned on my arm, hitting right where the marks from Julian's bite were, a tell-tale sign that the revenant had his way with me.

Maybe freedom wasn't as close as I thought it was.

When I returned home, how would I explain this to my father? How would I explain that I entered a revenant’s domain and became undead in the process? And then, how would I explain that I let my friends wander their way right to their deaths?

I slumped down to the ground and buried my face in my hands. I’d fucked up quite majorly since the events of last night. After all, who would accept a girl who couldn’t even think of saving her friends without saving herself first? It was a simple mistake, really, but in a community like Carey where the undead and their supporters were seen as insane and relentless, my spirit would be banished and my body thrown into the flames.

Perhaps… perhaps it was better to embrace my fate and stay in the theater. After all, I had been curious… not just about the theater and its history, but about the tortured soul that protected it.

“Stop.” My voice was hoarse, shaky from tears.

Julian was right behind me, his cold breath resting against the back of my neck. Tucking his flashlight underneath his arm, he offered a hand to help me back to my feet. As I rose, I brushed away my tears with the crook of my arm, and straightened myself up. I couldn’t mourn over the deaths of my loved ones or the fate I put myself in. I had to embrace my fate, let it be a part of me. There was a new life, or an afterlife that I had to start living now. I would do it for Ryan and Lacey, to punish myself for what I led them to. Otherwise, I’d go insane.

"I give up. I'll stay here with you. I'd rather be dead than go back out there feeling guilty that I let my friends die. And besides, I've realized that..." I sighed in anguish and forced myself to stare into the usher's eyes as the lies that would convince him to spare me formed in my mind. "I've realized that you might've been the person I've been looking for the whole time. I always wanted to find someone who was like me... loves horror movies with a burning passion, would guard their significant other with their loyal protection. And I feel like... you might be that person I've been searching for all along. I just didn't think of it until now, especially since you're... _we're_... dead."

It took a while for Julian to sink the information in, but once he did, he gave the eerie, feral grin I saw before in his lair.

“I suppose I don’t need to use the scorpion or the grasshopper in this case, then.”

“No.” I swallowed the last of my tears down. “No, you don’t. If I am to be saved, it is because _your_ love redeems me, Julian."

Touched, the smile on Julian's face grew wider, showing his teeth yellowed and stained with blood. He pressed me to his side as he led me out of the corridor and back into the bedroom in his lair, nearly throwing me on the bed in his excitement. He then rummaged through a pile of dresses nearby, eventually drawing out a huge, white heap of lace and silk and what looked like one of the veils Dracula's brides was wearing.

"I'm not scared," I whispered under my breath. "He's giving me a second chance."

Julian examined the dress for several seconds before turning back to me and showing me the antique gown that prefigured my end, limp and lifeless in his hands. "Dress," he said tersely, gently placing the dress and veil in my arms. "Tonight, you will be my bride."

My second chance at life, my second chance of serving my sentence for entering the Universal Palace Theater, was through _marriage_.

Just like Christine with the Phantom.

Julian left the room, giving me privacy to change out of my soaked sweater and jeans and into the wedding gown. It fit me perfectly, hugging my waist while the bustle trailed out in the back. I fluffed out the dust clinging onto the silk as I approached the mirror to fix my veil. My undead state quite literally took my breath away. Pale skin practically glowed in the darkness, while bright green eyes pierced into my soul. My hair was ratty from sleep, and it appeared to have gotten darker, more black than brown. It would take many weeks, perhaps months for me to fully appear more cadaver than human, with sunken in cheeks and an appetite for flesh.

I found him in the parlor, sitting at his organ as if to perform a wedding march. Shyly, I went over to Julian and tapped his shoulder, disturbing him from his silent trance. When he turned to see me, his eyes widened in a mix of shock and awe, and much to my surprise, became filled with tears. Was the usher really so touched at my sacrifice? He'd been locked up in this theater for decades, with only her dusty halls and disappearing glamour to comfort him. The monster really did wish for a mate, a woman who loved him for who he was and could tame the vengeance inside of him.

“My real, living bride,” Julian whispered to himself softly. He brushed back my bangs and pressed his cheek against mine. “Tell me, my dear, are you becoming my bride out of love, or out of fear?”

“Out of love,” I said meekly, fighting back the urge to say the latter. “Out of love for the new life I can live… with you.”

Julian didn’t move for several seconds, taking in the sight of me dressed as his bride. Obviously, this was a thought he had in his mind for a long time now, perhaps starting when he was resurrected into his revenant state. The Palace had filled his loveless void for several decades, but now that a woman had entered the theater and sacrificed herself willingly, in his eyes, anyway, it was finally his time to take a bride.

I lowered my head down and wrung my hands together nervously. The feeling of his stare focused on me unnerved me to no end, but I’d have to get used to it. This monster, this… ghost that let me stay alive then be killed by the end of his flashlight was to be my husband come dawn. I could always try to run away again, but what purpose would that give me? 

Then, Julian crumbled to his knees and started _sobbing_. Startled, I fought back the urge to recoil back in the fear that determined my every action. He grabbed the hem of my wedding dress and buried his face in the silky fabric, all while I could only watch my personal Phantom sob over the fact that he won Christine's heart. He was _infatuated_ with me. Not because of my sacrifice for my late friends' sake, but for how redeemed he now was. Despite him still being a murderer and a ghost, he still clung to his mortal past, how alone and miserable he was. I had broken his solitude, all because I agreed to stay.

“Are… are you okay?” 

Julian didn’t respond, instead wrapping his arms around my waist, burying his head in my chest.

“Uh… Julian?”

The sound of my voice saying his name stopped Julian's tears, and his wet, mismatched eyes gazed into mine again. I could’ve sworn my heart broke at that very moment. The sight of a man who for decades went without love and passed over to the other side hurt me, and I was his one and only successful chance at finding that love. 

"I'm sorry..." I found myself saying, my voice quivering. "I didn't know the undead could have broken hearts, too.”

Julian rose to his feet, and quickly, I wrapped my arms around him. The usher gasped and flinched at the sudden embrace, his posture remaining cold and stiff as a board. My tears stained his jacket, but he didn’t seem to mind. All he cared about was that I was here, accepting his twisted marriage proposal.

“I’m going to stay with you,” I whispered to him soothingly, running my fingers through the dark curls underneath his hat. “I’m not going to leave you alone anymore. I’ve learned something rather important since I’ve been here, Julian. The both of us, we… we belong dead.”

Julian warmly smiled at the reference to _Bride of Frankenstein_. “And here we are, in our crypt to rot forevermore.”

I shook my head. “Not rot. To live as we’ve been robbed of the opportunity.”

The words I heard myself saying sounded like quotes taken directly from a cheesy Gothic horror romance story. They were the only things I could say to appease the beast, to calm him down. In a way, I was still young and foolish, even though I was a few weeks away from turning twenty. I’d have to take my decisions with stride, as I ushered myself right to them. I’d have to work hard to reciprocate the passion Julian felt for his theater and the desire he felt for me to love him back.

“I do not wish for you to be my prisoner, Katharine," Julian said softly. "I am much more dignified than to keep you here for cruel intentions alone. I wish to be your friend, your… husband.”

“And you will be.”

Julian took a step toward me timidly and started to delicately run his fingers through my hair. “Don’t be frightened of me, Katharine. There shall be no peril as long as your love for the Usher of this theater overcomes your fear.”

“I’m not scared of you. I never was. It’s just… your vengeful nature tends to get the best of you. I think you were a good person once… maybe you still are. But killing a person for their mistakes… that’s just something I don’t understand.”

“You will eventually. You are undead now, a revenant like I am. Revenants have different tendencies than mortals do. Soon, the urge for you to kill will get stronger. It will just take some time.”

"I can’t change my ways so quickly. My dad was a hunter… and I was, too. I always thought that people took advantage of the supernatural living here, like they’re something to be made fun of. They don’t understand that the undead have lives, too! And that’s why… maybe that’s why I was so drawn to your story. You were just looking for a second chance. And I think I am, too." I sighed. "I regret everything I’ve done. The killing, the shooting, everything. The dead need more respect. Not all undead people are bad. They’re just… misguided. They’re trying to live with what they’ve got."

Julian's face brightened up as if finally, after years of hiding in the shadows, someone unlocked the key behind his acts of vengeance. His gloved hand caressed my face, but he quickly retreated back, almost as if touching me as an act of rebellion. The emotion in his eyes read of confusion, fear even. He didn't know how to embrace a lover.

After a moment of hesitance, I slowly guided him to me, and his lips soon crashed onto mine. They were cold but smooth, how I would've expected the lips of a living corpse to feel like anyhow. Julian's hands clang to my waist as I threw my arms over his neck, but he stopped himself from going any further. He was surprised by the kiss, trembling like an electric shock was racing through him. Meanwhile, my body was shaking from the sobs I suppressed, out of embarrassment and revulsion for the revenant I now had to call my husband. I have to be brave now, I told myself in my head. I have to be brave for Ryan and Lacey and my family. Being brave was the key to destroy fear. My dad always told his students, including me, Ryan, and Lacey, how fear existed in a corporeal form as well, existing as a demon named Adaru. No one but the undead could see him, and his power over mortals was great, especially as Carey was one step closer toward becoming a literal no man's land. I have become yet another victim of Adaru's plague, but in the end, I was strong.

Death before dishonor, I recalled in my head. I'd rather be dead than dishonor my father and his views.

Julian parted away from my lips as his eyes lowered down to the floor again, almost as if he felt guilty of even coming close to me. Carefully, I lifted his head up and gazed into his mismatched eyes. His milky eye sent dread racing through me, but I took a deep sigh - as much as I could do in my undead state - and fought all those frightful feelings away.

"Don't be ashamed," I told him gently. "The first time around is always... strange, but it's exhilarating too. You just have to get used to it."

Slowly, Julian dug into his pocket and drew out a gold band topped with a silver diamond. He took my hand and studied it for a moment before sliding the band on my finger. I held back the tears prickling in my eyes, tears of foolish hope and shame. There was definitely no way out now. The deed was done. If I wanted to save myself and do what I had to do to ease away the guilt, I'd have to live as this monster's wife.

"My bride..." Julian lowered his lips down to my hand and kissed it, brushing his lips against the ring. I noticed it fit my finger perfectly. It wasn't too loose or too tight, almost like it was made for me. "My Katharine... how happy you've made me."

"I know," I said wistfully, my skin crawling at the sound of him saying my name. Not just Katharine. _His_ Katharine. "I'm glad I have."

I twisted the ring around my finger aimlessly, thinking of more things I could say. Nothing came to mind except for how empty I felt, being dead and have severed ties with the outside world to save myself. I tried to think of Ryan and Lacey and how I 'married' Julian for them, but I could only think of how I only saved myself. What would it be like if I actually loved this usher? I don't even think it would be love, but more like obsession. The way he looked at me in the auditorium as he beat Ryan to death, and the way his assistants laughed at my suffering... and now, he thought he had the nerve to redeem himself through what he thought was love? There was no telling what being the Usher's wife would entail. There would be no chaste kisses, no watching movies in our pajamas and cuddling on the couch. Just the sound of silence and the ominous threat of displeasing him would linger on.

A tear slid down my cheek, but it was quickly brushed away by a gloved hand.

“I do not wish to see my bride… saddened on her wedding day. Now that you’re undead, nothing of the past will matter anymore.”

“Then why are you so hateful of people? Why not give the rule breakers a second chance at life?”

My question actually made Julian do a double take, his eyes briefly flaring up. “Rules must be followed, no matter what. It is my sworn duty to protect the Universal Palace from the ones who want to hurt her. And you, Katharine… your companions were out to hurt you. So I had to do was right for them… and for us.”

“No!” I sank down to my knees and started sobbing _again_. “None of this was right! Why do you think this is some form of karma, huh? It’s very fucked up, if you ask me!”

“For your information,” Julian said icily, “I believe in _justice_. Just remember, Katharine, that vengeance changes a person. It can make them realize what they’re capable of.”

“Oh, so you’re going to scare me with another _Saw_ quote? Here’s another one. _You’re a monster!_ It’s from the same movie! Now leave me alone, please! I’m begging you!”

Julian didn’t even question whatever twisted plans he had in mind for our wedding night. Silently, he looked at me one last time with blank eyes and left the bedroom, leaving me to finally cry in peace. He couldn’t care less if I was suffering, and neither did his assistants, wherever the hell they were. However, I didn’t blame him. The undead were oblivious to suffering; in fact, they fed off of it. I had only helped the living dead win, and nothing more. Now, Julian could go to his fellow heralds of Fear and bring me with him like I was his slave, to brag that the Phantom could sure as hell take back Christine if he wanted to.

I didn't bother to remove my wedding dress. Sinking into the cold blankets was an instant relief to the fire currently raging inside of me. As I laid my head down on the pillow, I tried to clear my head of all the devastating thoughts ingrained in my mind, but they still charged on, pushing my sanity further away from my grasp. Who did Julian think I was, a naive girl that would just fall for him right away? Love took time, and apparently, he didn’t understand that. The undead knew nothing of love, either! So why did he bother to try?

There was no sympathy for the dead, but perhaps out of all the undead who needed sympathy, it were the souls who'd been tortured in life who needed it the most.

Julian was no exception.

And neither was I.


End file.
